2018 income tax changes

It is difficult to understate the enormity of changes in 2018 and beyond for all taxpayers. This is the first major revision of the Federal income tax code since 1986, and folks, it’s a biggie! Not to be outdone, Iowa has also revised its tax code, phased in over several years, and with revenue targets that must be met for some of the changes to be implemented. Iowa’s phased-in approach creates big headaches for affected taxpayers.

Our first take on this mass of legislation can be found here. This page is still useful in that it lists the major changes on one page. Below, we’ll try to expand on our coverage of these massive changes, broken down by categories of taxpayers. You can find a quick income tax calculator here, but it only covers very broad scenarios.

First, both IRS and the State of Iowa (see below) have published large amounts of information on their own websites regarding this extensive legislation. These pages are frequently updated as the new laws are being interpreted into regulations.

This link gives a brief overview of the areas where Iowa is not in compliance with the federal changes. For the most part, Iowa does not institute the federal changes in 2018, but will phase-in most of the new law over the next several years.